Christmas Tree
by smaragdbird
Summary: A 'normal' day for Quinn and Creedy , premovie slash


Christmas Tree 

Quinn woke up when the blanket was lifted from his body. They had mid of December and therefore it was freezing not only outside the castle but also inside. But it was only for a short moment, then a warm body settled down next to him an arms wrapped around his waist.

'You're late', Quinn murmured sleepily and pressed closer to the other body.

'You know Ajay. He's a bitch in the morning.' Creedy answered with a heavy yawn interrupting his words: 'Otherwise it was quiet. It's already too cold for them.'

'Thank God for that.'

When Quinn woke up again, the sun shone through the windows. Behind him, Creedy shifted, still deeply asleep. His limps were intertwined with Quinn's and he snored slightly. It was impossible for him to move without waking Creedy, so Quinn settled for another ten minutes. He liked this kind of normalcy. It reminded him of a normal life without dragons, where you fight over things like open left toothpaste tube and little things like that and not who of you is going to bring the sheep in before the dragon comes back and burns them all.

These ten minutes every morning were filed under 'I don't think I could manage without it' in Quinn's very personal inner folder. Almost everything that had to do with Creedy was filed in that folder. After spending approximately 17 years together you get accustomed to each other's peculiarities.

'What did I say last night that you're thinking at this hour?' Creedy asked sighing from behind. Smiling, Quinn turned around.

'You said that Ajay is a bitch.'

'He certainly deserved it.' Creedy commented and closed his eyes again. Quinn leaned close to drop small kisses on his face and Creedy made some encouraging noises which would've lead to morning sex if the door hadn't opened and Jared hadn't jumped on them.

'Stop it! That's how I get sisters!'

Oh. Really?!' Quinn laughed but gave Creedy an odd look but he only shrugged. Jared focused on Creedy.

'You promised to take me with you to the sheep!' He glanced reproachfully at Creedy.

'Give me ten minutes and then I'll come to the gate. Tell Lin to make the packages ready, would you?'

'Hooray!' Those words worked magic. Jared leapt off the bed and stormed out of the room. Creedy made an attempt to lay back onto the bed and close his eyes for the next five minutes but he found Quinn's look on him.

'What?' he asked, unwilling to let his precious five minutes of sleep go.

'First: what did you tell Jared about procreation and second: why didn't you tell me about your little promise. It's dangerous out there.'

'Don't worry I'll hand him over to Chris and Sam and bring him back tonight when I bring them their food for the next weeks. You know them. They won't let him out of sight. And to your first question I didn't tell him anything. But one of us should do this soon before he **wants** a sister and we'll have to disappoint him.'

'But I worry. He's eight, too young to be a whole day out there.' Quinn dismissed the thoughts of an illuminative talk with Jared. They could do that later.

'I know you want to protect him but you have to let go a bit. And now you'll have to let me go or Jared is going to eat me alive.' Creedy pressed a small kiss to Quinn's lips and disentangled himself from Quinn. Quin sighed and watched Creedy put his clothes on. Before he walked out of the door, Creedy said:' I'll see you for lunch.'

Quinn loved to cook and he did not only love it, he also had a special talent for it. Only he could create 100 different meals containing always and only potatoes, mutton and tomatoes. Creedy liked to say that if the dragons would've never turned up, Quin would 've become a chef in a very expensive restaurant. And that he, Creedy would have married Quinn 'right after the first meal because you win a man's heart through his stomach after all'.

That was the reason why he stood in the castle's kitchen now and prepared lunch for 150 people together with Lin and Jess. As usual they had piles of tomatoes and potatoes and three dead and already skinned sheep. They had agreed on stew earlier, since it was winter and really cold outside.

Quinn worked on the sheep which was rather difficult because the brute was gaunt and the flesh unyielding and chewy but better that than nothing.

Lin juggled with some potatoes to relax her hands as she claimed while Jess cut the tomatoes and told them about The Matrix.

'They're in a very bad situation because four of them are dead, one hurt and the captain in prison. So they do was every good action hero does: they are going to rescue him. Which leads to a pretty cool confrontation between Neo and the Agents. They want to shoot him but he just stops the bullets halfway to his body and lets them drop to the floor. The he kills one f them by jumping** into **him, which looked not as nasty as it sounds, and…'

Lin had let fall a potato but she grinned as she picked it up again and said:

'Now we know for sure that I'm not the chosen one!'

About three hours later the tomatoes were mashed together with the mutton and the potatoes into a hot stew and the tables filled steadily with people. Chatter and laughter filled the room. Normally the older children came in last because of school(and wasn't that an odd thing that school still existed even in a post-apocalyptic world?) but today was Sunday so they came in small groups with their friends and families.

Creedy came in last, snow flakes in his hair and, to Quinn's surprise, with an equally snow covered Jared at his side. He stormed off to sit next to Michael and his family, no doubt telling exaggerated stories about what happened during the time he was outside the castle.

Creedy came over to Quinn and sat down next to him after he filled his plate with the stew.

'Began snowing shortly after we reached Sam and Chris. They wanted to reach the shelter today, so I brought Jared back with me. Saw a really nice fir on the way back. We should chop it as soon as possible before the weather gets really nasty.' He examined the content of his bowl and muttered:

'When we have outlasted them, our new anthem should contain a praise of tomatoes, sheep and potatoes.' Quinn laughed and Creedy openly grinned at him. Opposite them, Lin coughed on a piece of mutton while she tried to suppress a laugh. Ajay gave her a sympathetical pat on the back.

'Quinn will probably publish a book after this: 1000 imaginable ways to cook tomatoes, mutton and potatoes. It'll be a bestseller and you'll be the star of every cooking show on he whole planet.' He said, his hand still on Lin's back: 'Or do you have something else in mind for your future?'

'Underground construction engineer.'

'Not a chef. I'm disappointed! ', Creedy declared dramatically: 'But there's still enough time to persuade you. What about you Lin? What are you going to do after this?'

Lin pulled a streak of her hair out of her braid and played with it.

'I want to be an actress with the whole being-famous-and-marry-an-equally-famous-rich-handsome-co-actor-thing.'

'Not an equally-rich-famous-handsome-musician?' Ajay asked not as subtle as he hoped.

'Why? Do you want to be that equally-rich-famous-handsome-musician and sweep me off my feet?'

'If you're a rich and pretty actress, why not?' Lin laughed , then turned to Creedy.

'Your turn.'

'I…', Creedy made a dramatic pause: 'want to be a guide for future Munroists.'

Quinn laughed, Ajay muttered something about 'freaking Scots' and Lin asked: 'What's a Munro?'

'A Munro is a mountain that is about 3000ft high and has its place in Scotland. They're listed in Munro's Table and if you have climbed all 284, you're a Munroist. Everyone in my family gained this title and since Quinn's and mine little hide-and-seek time with the dragons years ago I have only seven Munros missing in my collection.'

'We were running for our lives and you had the time to count mountains?' Quin asked: 'I always suspected that that hit on your head made you a bit crazy but this…' He shook incredulously his head.

'Nah', Creedy nudged him in he ribs: 'You love me beside my madness, don't you?'

'Of course', Quinn sighed but still buried his face in he crook of Creedy's neck. On the other side of the table, Ajay looked away but Lin returned Creedy's smile and watched them unconcernedly.

'He always gets cuddly around the time. Blame it on Christmas.' Creedy said and winced as Quinn pinched him anew.

Quinn had the watch after lunch for the whole afternoon. Even though no-one of them had ever seen a dragon during winter, they kept the watch because besides dragons they had to watch out for marauders.

The snow already lay ankle high and it kept snowing. Creedy was right, Quinn thought, they would've to bring the tree in before the snow was to high. Creedy, Quinn smiled as he reminded himself how different they were from each other: Creedy loved the outside, the more fresh air he got the better. Quinn, on the other hand preferred the inside: houses, castles, caves. It had to be something he inherited from his mother. Creedy was slightly claustrophobic, Quinn was agoraphobic.

He kept on walking on the wall. In winter they lessened the watch, one man in each section instead of two or three like in the summer when the newly bred dragons came for their first hunt.

Quinn found the monotonous sound of his own steps very calming, nearly as calming as a cave.

Cold hands covered his eyes a few hours later. It was dark now and the snow had erased most noises.

'Who am I?' Asked a male voice with a thick Scottish accent. Quinn smiled. Even if he hadn't spoken, he would've recognized him because of his hands. He knew these hands as well as his own. Or maybe even better because he did not pay much attention to his own hands.

'Creedy.' He sighed and leaned back against Creedy's body.

'Ready to go tree shopping with me?'

'Tree shopping?'

'Free choice under all trees that are left and they're for free! Do this in a jewellery shop and every woman on this planet loves you. But since I have no jewellery shop and you're not a woman I offer you trees.

Quinn laughed and tipped his head back on Creedy's shoulder. They stood like this for a few moments, silent, until Quinn whispered:

'If you could stop the time. Exactly now. Everything's good now.'

He felt the arms around his waist tighten and tilted his head without taking his head off Creedy's shoulder. His lashes brushed Creedy's cheek. Their eyes locked and – and there was it. This special something he only felt in moments like these, only with Creedy.

The moment broke when a figure came out of the darkness surrounding them and called Quinn's name. It was Paddy. He'd come to relieve him from the watch.

'So.' Creedy stretched and his joints cracked audibly: 'Let us go and chop that tree.'

Because of the snow they needed more time to reach Creedy's tree as they would've without it, plus the darkness. The advantage on the other hand was that Creedy held Quinn's hand on the whole way between the castle and the fir. The calloused hand in his gave Quinn a feeling of safety. While he followed Creedy, Quinn looked around. Or tried to at least because the stars and the crescent spent barely enough light to make out the outlines of the surrounding landscape. The temperatures were icy. Before _they_ came along, everyone talked about global warming. Faced with degrees like that, even the thought seemed ridiculous.

He was so lost in thought that he bumped into Creedy as he suddenly stopped.

'What do you think?' Quinn followed Creedy's look and examined the tree as good as he could in this light. The fir was nearly seven feet high and had many branches.

'I think which route you and Jared must have taken to get here.'

'Well, Jared was very amazed by the stunt you pulled in the cave so I had to do something equally impressive. So I showed him that you may be the caveman but I cant find the right way no matter where we are.'

Quinn looked slightly scandalized but Creedy only took the axe he brought with him and began to work on the tree.

'You brought Jared and you in lethal danger just to show off in front of a nine year old boy?'

'Don't exaggerate it, Quinn. Of course I didn't get us really lost.'

'I don't exaggerate.' Quinn replied, irritated because Creedy shouldered the chopped tree and looked ready to go.

'And why am I here when you do the whole work?'

'Because my original intention was to fuck you out here without having to care about making noises but it's really too cold for that so I'm going to bring this home so you can spoil me later because I worked so hard.'

Quinn couldn't see Creedy's face but he could very well imagine the openly smug expression it must had right now.

'And the other reason is, that you're the caveman. You deal with stones and bats and all that. I'm the outdoor guy and who deals with trees and fresh air.'

Quinn never understood how Creedy came up with things like that but he was glad he did. It had kept him from brooding more than once.

'So if I'm the caveman, does that mean I can knock you out in front of everyone and drag you to my own private cave to show that you're mine?'

'As long as I get a special treatment for my bruise like the one I'm going to get for my blistered hands tonight, you can knock me out whenever you like.'


End file.
